The present invention relates to a mold for the formation of any desired pattern (such as lines and graphic patterns) on workpieces, and a manufacturing method thereof.
So far, there has been a pattern-formation process known in the art, in which a fluid material such as polydimethylsiloxanes is cast onto a master template, and let be cured there to prepare a mold having a fine stereoscopic structure, and this mold is used to form a fine pattern of the micro- or nano-order on a workpiece such as a resinous material by means of microcontact printing or imprinting (JP(A) 2002-353436).
A problem with such mold manufacturing has been, however, that the mold peeled off the master template has handling difficulty in later steps such as an inspection step because of its extreme softness.
This handling problem could be overcome if, after the casting of polydimethylsiloxane or other suitable material onto the master template, the material is cured while a support substrate is engaged with it to form a mold on that support substrate. However, this has led to another problem that the polydimethylsiloxane or other suitable material remains sticking to the support substrate in the curing stage, rendering the peeling of the support substrate off the mold difficult.
With conventional molds prepared using polydimethyl-siloxane or other suitable material, there has also been a problem that when patterning is implemented with the mold held abutting on a silicon-containing substrate such a glass, quartz, or silicon substrate, or when the mold is placed and stored on that silicon-containing substrate for an extended period of time, it remains sticking to the silicon-containing substrate, offering a problem with handleability and stability.